A few evenings ago, I threw a load of clothes in the washer, and plopped down in my easy chair to watch an old “Gunsmoke” episode. The story focused on the depiction of the prairie woman living off the land in a ramshackle cabin, surrounded by chickens and little kids, working her fingers to the bone doing the family wash in her only good work dress. As if she didn’t have enough to do, she also had to haul water from the creek, heat the water over a fire with only buffalo chips for fuel, and scrub the clothes, rubbing them on a washboard. Her hands must have been raw. No Jergens lotion in those days!
Imagine the woman of that time owning her own scrub board? Lucky her. She might even be fortunate enough to own a bar or two of lye soap. Oh, that’s right. She made her own soap. Then she hauled more water to rinse the garments, hanging them to dry on the fence or over the wash tub.
In those times, clothes were washed only after 10 wearings or more. Today, our kids throw their clothes on the floor, we pick them up and wash them instead of deciding which are dirty and which are clean; notwithstanding the fact that we wash them way too often anyway.
Thankfully, the washing clothes routine did get better.
Prior to World War II, city folk relied on commercial laundries. Chinese laundries developed during the mid-19th century. They opened throughout the country and became identified with this ethnic group who took the idea and ran with it. I remember my father taking his shirts to the laundry and picking them up, all ironed and starched, fresh to go.
Our small towns picked up the idea and opened laundry services as well.
How greatly laundry labor has been diminished over the years! And for those who own a washer and a dryer, how we all take for granted the luxury of stuffing clothes in the washer, adding detergent, and getting on with our busy lives.
By the middle of the 20th century, the self-service laundromat arrived, where one could handle the chore himself. The always-pessimistic-media commented that the public would never do their laundry in a public place. It was considered bad taste or lack of modesty to display one’s personal clothes to a public place.
A common societal belief circulated about washing one’s “dirty linen” in public, suggesting that laundry should be done only in the privacy of the home. The woman of the house did not “buy” into this. The public was ready for this time-saving help.
Thankfully, this idea of a “launderette” took hold, and didn’t stop the average housewife from grabbing some quarters and heading for this new convenience. It was the “rage.”
So many customers turned out for the opening that police had to handle the traffic. Eventually, customers were required to sign up for any given period on a given day, reserving machines as you might reserve a table in a restaurant.
So today we have laundromats on any city corner, and washers and dryers in the home. Both are tremendous improvements. Both have advantages. And for the housewife (or househusband?) what’s next? Something else will eventually come along, and will probably be the result of less available water. Maybe we will clean clothes with laser lights or something.
All I know is that I don’t have to wash our laundry by hand; that I can sit down and drink a cup of coffee while it is being done for me. It’s good to have a reminder at times, isn’t it?
Judi Tabler lives in Pawnee County and is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune. She can be reached at juditabler@gmail.com.
